The Government has announced the endorsement of the key findings in the Significant Investor Visa review, which include:
- the creation of a Premium Investor visa (PIV) with Austrade as the nominator
- the involvement of Austrade in determining complying investment policy
- enabling Austrade to nominate SIV and PIV applicants on behalf of the Australian Government
- allowing ‘role swapping’ between primary and secondary applicants during the provisional visa stage within all streams of the Business Innovation and Investment Programme (BIIP)
- a range of changes to improve visa processing times, many of which have already been implemented.
In addition to the findings of the review, there will also be an increase in the residency requirement for secondary applicants of the SIV to 180 days.
The changes are expected to come into effect from 1 July 2015.
